Update Archives

May 5

What's Needed?

One of the most frequent questions we get asked is: what's needed? Well, the best response is to play what you like. This is a game about having fun within a community. In that spirit, too...we thought we'd offer up a few ideas. These are not required, they're not even us or anyone else asking you to play them.

However, the question DOES come up. So, IF one of these strikes your fancy, and IF you'd enjoy playing it...why, dive right in!! Always, always, however: play what you love.

Oruch Bards

The 'goblinoid' races in general could use some love, yet here is a concept that is rarely played out. With their ties to their ancestors and great voices, oruch make strong war bards, as versed in blood as they are song and history.

Arvek Nar Cavaliers, Fighters, Druids

The arvek nar are an emergent race with ties unknown to the goddess Serriel. They are masters of war and combat. Cavaliers, fighters, are all needed and well-within their grasp. They feature druids as well--secret trainers of their famed war mounts.

Gobber Artificers

These gun-toting stinkers could use some love and flavor. Known artificers, inventors, and thieves, the artificer class lends itself to gun use with its Titan Armor, and gobbers...well. Gobbers love things that go boom. Firearms are iconic for them.

Khazad-Aul, Khazad-Mornir Warriors

The iconic warrior, the khazad are sorely unrepresented in this area. So too, are their wise priests and clerics, who tend to hold a respected, and treasured, place within khazad society. A number of them are also famed beard-readers and diviners, a respected form of divination among the race.

Clerics

Clerics in general are always a welcome addition. They're one of the ones we suggest 'in general,' because not only are they always needed, they're a great way to get to know others, and make friends.

Wizards

Wizards! While the knowledge skill heavy or linguistically talented wizard is iconic, there are other avenues to explore with wizards. We'd like to see them.

April 29

Update to Rangers

Rangers (mounted combat) and cavaliers now have the abilitiy to summon their mounts to their side, a limited number of times per day. Each class flavors the ability differently, and according to theme. This is to help even out the playing field somewhat, and relieve some anxiety about such concepts.

- Lahar

April 25

Ten Years of Tenebrae

That's right, folks.

This May, Tenebrae turns ten years old. It's hard for me personally to believe that we've been going this long and we're stronger than ever. Hopefully, this is a trend that continues. This is not something we could have done without a lot of blood, sweat and tears from everyone who has ever staffed here and the combined efforts of all of you.

There will be more forthcoming on this front. Few MUSHes reach this kind of milestone and we'll definitely be celebrating it and talking more about our future plans.

- Whirl

Profession Skills Now on Website

The skills page now contains a list of professions. Before, this list was only available in chargen and during advancement.

- Lahar

April 16

The Official Jinks' Sheet Contest

It is our firm belief that Jinks' +sheet is not yet long enough.

We are offering a 10 XP bonus for hilarious submissions of things that should be added to his +sheet under miscellaneous abilities. There is a maximum of 100 XP earned this way.

Please @mail Lahar and I with your submissions.

- Whirlpool

Already on Jinks' Sheet

Already on Jinks' Sheet:

    * Deadbeat Dad
    * Chopped Liver
    * Landscape Gnome
    * Lengthy Rap Sheet
    * Levels Inconveniently
    * Owes Child Support
    * Smartypants McGnomerson
    * Springheel'd Jinks
    * Typhoid Gnomery

Looking forward to your ideas. XD

- Lahar

April 12

Gentle Reminder!

This is just a gentle reminder to folks: If you think a time is going to bad for you for a scene you've been scheduled for, please remember to let the DMs know as quickly as possible. We put a lot of work into our scenes and having people no show or show late or tell us at the last minute they can't make can be frustrating. Keep in mind we have a lot of players in a lot of timezones, some of whom have to rearrange their sleeping schedules just to make their scenes.

No one is being pointed a finger at here -- this is just a general reminder from which we can all benefit. It is important to stay in communication and sometimes those things can slip.

- Whirl

April 05

Introducing... ME!

New staffette here, Pororoca, the destructive wave! In very short order, I hope to be crushing your hopes and dreams in the manner you are accustomed to from my mentor, Whirlpool. Thank you. You may get back to quivering in fear.

- Pororoca

April 02

CLOSED: Friendship Reports

That's it, it was fun while it lasted. No more Friendship Reports -- we shall sleep, and then see what everypony has written to us about magic of friendship.

- Cobweb Tangle

April 02

Thank you, everyone!

Hi, everyone! We want to thank all of you for getting into the spirit of our April Fool's Day Joke. Rest assured, all of you are a big part of what makes this game successful and awesome. We'd also like to offer a special thank you to those who helped us make it work: Eleria, Melon, and Azog.

We could not have done this without them.

We'll begin the process of unponifyng everyone tonight. :)

- Rainbow Swirl

April 01

Welcome to Ponyfinder!

Welcome to Ponyfinder!

Er...welcome, everypony! We're proud to announce that after a year and a half of work, we're ready to launch Ponyfinder here on Tenebrae! You'll see more and more of the Ponytheme appearing over the next week, so we ask you to be patient with us until that time.

In the meantime, you can catch a sneak peek at our new races by visiting People > Races. You will want to think of ponynames for your existing PCs, also (and we will be providing a tool to help do so, shortly).

Be sure to check out our new login, and website, too, for hints of things to come!

Your new staff are:

Whirlpool -> Rainbow Swirl

Lahar -> Chocolate Lava Cake

Lolth -> Aunty Cobweb Tangle

Pyroclasm -> Hippieclasm

Earthquake -> Cranky Doodle Donkey

Thunder -> Thunder Hooves

Welcome to Ponyfinder! Friendship truly IS Magic...

Pony resources

If you have trouble visualizing your ponyself, we recommend to use this handy tool for creating your ponysona:

http://generalzoi.deviantart.com/art/Pony-Creator-Full-Version-254295904

- Cobweb Tangle

Friendship Reports

Since our beloved cousin Celestia is not around, we accept friendship reports in her stead.

Everypony who sends a friendship report via @mail to us, Cobweb Tangle, today, will be rewarded for their effort.

Instructions: 1) Send @mail to Cobweb Tangle, titled "Friendship Report". 2) Write what you have learned about magic of friendship today. (Note that the best ones shall be shared with public, because everypony should learn.) 3) Only one friendship report per character. If you have used Pony Creator (see the link in a previous post) to create a ponysona, share the link for extra rewards.

- Cobweb Tangle

Ponyfinder RP

Today, a colorful mist surrounds Alexandria. For the next 24 hours, you may take your ponyfinder pony ongrid as the land of Friendship and Dreams briefly visits. RP for this day will be considered to happen in a 'pony sandbox,' so please have fun, everypony!

P.S. You can, of course, have normal RP. It just cannot involve ponies.

-Chocolate Lava Cake

March 24

RPPs!

The oruch stood his ground as the army marched away. He could not go with them--his destiny, as much as he cursed it, lay at the small bundle at his feet. An arm shot up, its skin oddly translucent, its interior filled with smoke. The djinn. Wanted their child back.

Stories. Roleplay. Adventure. These three are at the heart of Tenebrae. Though, we've always struggled with how to reward stories. When monsters aren't involved, DnD turns shy.

We'd begun this journey with Dramatic PrPs, and Aspects, and with their success, are looking to expand into a new, more flexible realm. We're pleased to announce RPPs, or Role Play Points.

RPPs are tied to you, the player. You earn them by doing awesome things, and logging it. Get ongrid, tell a story, and let us know about it. Once you accumulate these points, you can spend them however you wish, on any alt you like.

Aspects are being rolled into this system which is, we hope, an overall and smoother approach to them. As we prepare to launch, we welcome your questions, and while we may not always have answers, we will try our best. Bear with us, though, and keep in mind, as with any new thing there may need to be adjustments along the way, based on feedback.

To see what's down the line, visit Characters > RPPs.

- The Tenebrae Staff and Community

March 19

Time Is Out of Kilter (not)

Hello, peeps. As a reminder, Finland (where the server lies), does not warp into future 'till 25th of March. There's nothing wrong with the reality you observe.

- Lolth

March 19

Automagic Log Cleaner

Our automagic log cleaner is now available in two places on the website:

Roleplay > Logs > Automagic Log Cleaning, OR

Start Here > Wiki Help > Automagic Log Cleaning

Let me know if you run into any issues.

- Lahar

March 19

Reminder II

This is a second reminder to Whirl's first reminder!

Death in DnD isn't that big of a deal, OOCly. ICly, it's part of the profession you're in. People with Destinies (adventurers) have a chance to come back, and it's part of life (ha ha).

Althea even sponsors raises.

So sit back and enjoy the game. Stories are what you make of them.

- Lahar

March 19

Reminder

All DM plots and Plotmaster plots are ones in which you automatically consent to the risk of death.

That said, this is D&D. Death is not exactly the end of the game.

- Whirl

(p.s. Current DMs are: Whirl, Thunder, Pyro. Current Plotmasters are: Jinks, Spike, Eva. <3 Tsu)

March 12

Eva!

Eva has officially decided to join our Plotmaster squad. :)

Everyone give her a big welcome!

- Whirl

March 11

ASCII Art

Ported over from...way, way back in 2009, on crafting ASCII art, using it within a MU, and how to do so responsibly (and for effect). If you've any questions, please ping.

http://www.tenebraemush.net/index.php/ASCII_Tutorial

- Lahar

March 11

Automagic Log Cleaning!

With a click or two and a little help from Notepad++, you can now automagically clean your logs! A big thanks to Eleria for helping out with this project! Without his assistance with the RegEx, none of this would be possible.

You can find the instructions here:

Roleplay > Logs > Automagic Log Cleaning, OR

Start Here > Wiki Help > Automagic Log Cleaning

The tutorial gives you two options: manual, and macros. Manual is useful if you'd just like to clean out specific sections. Macro are useful if you want to clean everything at once (though I've included a macro for "everything except OOC," too).

You can also find the tutorial by navigating to Roleplay > Logs, and looking at the top help section.

Please @mail me with your feedback, and make sure to thank Eleria next time you see him.

- Lahar

March 09

I am running a little behind on requests. I will get to them this weekend. :)

- Whirl

February 29

Artifice Armor Clarification

Artificer's Titan Armor clarified a bit. We hope this helps. :3

http://www.tenebraemush.net/index.php/Artificer

- Lahar

February 29

Languages

Just a heads-up that the languages in CG aren't accurate. We'll be rectifying this as soon as possible.

- Lahar

February 26

Wow!

We broke our all time connections record. Yes, a chunk of that was connected alts, but holy hell. We broke the record. 70 connections. That's a lot of players no matter how you look at it.

Thank you, again, to everyone for making Tenebrae a continued success.

- Whirl

February 25

Alt policy clarified a bit. This is a direction we've been in for some time--it's about time to write it down. So we did! None of it should be a surprise, and is more a continuation with what we'd begun with forum logins.

February 24

Request Backlog

We have a backlog of requests. I will be trying to work through them and approvals this weekend. :)

- Whirl

February 22

They Said I had OCD...

...I believed them: http://www.tenebraemush.net/index.php/Feats

- Lahar

February 19

I'll be out of town on business this coming Tuesday, February 21st, through Friday, the 24th.

- Thunder

February 16

Recent History Updated

We've updated the recent history on the wiki at Roleplay > Recent History to reflect the 'Fake Mists' plot that ended recently.

This should bring several of our newer players up to date on what has gone on with that. :)

- Whirl

February 15

...I hate you, wizard schools!

This is why: Characters > Magic (updated)

- Lahar <333foreversquee!

February 06

New BBoard!

We're pleased to announce a new +bboard group: IC: RP Requests. RP Requests is a place to request a more specific type of RP. For example, you might advertise wanting to get together with other druids on a specific date. Or, you might also post a request for someone to play an NPC for you.

Remember, specific requests are better than general ones when it comes to getting responses.

We hope you'll enjoy the new board. As with any new feature, we'll be looking to make adjustments depending on how things go.

- Lahar

February 06

Egalrin page cleaned up.

- Lahar

February 05

Just a heads-up for anyone who wasn't sure how website logins worked, or who hadn't requested one yet.

* Your forum ID and password are also your wiki login. However, make sure to login to the forum first, or the wiki might not 'pick up' that you're there.

* Once logged into the website, you can edit or make a character page, post logs, or share your NPCs. We've a template for character pages, if you're not too familiar with wikis, and Tsu and I are here to help!.

If you haven't requested a login, and are approved, please @mail me with an email and a desired password. We'll get you up. :)

- Lahar

February 04

Diceless PrPs!

Did you know we have diceless PrPs? Dramatic PrPs are aimed at telling a story that's a little out of the way of the standard adventure. That is, they're great for festivals, for a dramatic chase of a thief across town, the exploration of foreign cultures and places.

They also involve as many, or as few (though at least 2) players as you wish, and any mixture of levels, to boot.

You can find a few more details here.

February 02

Upcoming Holidays

We've THREE upcoming holidays this month on Alexandria's calendar! These are:

2/12-2/17 Kegger Fest: A dwarven festival in honor of getting smashed. New beer is often introduced!

2/20 Deathwatch: A day celebrated by the followers of the undead god, Thul. This holiday is outlawed in many lands, and dangerous to boot!

2/21 Balefire: A ritual day of spring summoning usually held after Deathwatch; a Druidic festival.

We don't have anything planned for these, specifically, though welcome anyone who would like to step forward. All forms of PrPs are open as well--please check with staff if you've any questions, and we and your community are always around to offer ideas and support.

- Your Tenebrae Staff

February 02

For my latest scene, I've had a grand total of 14 applicants. Let's keep this activity going, folks! RP! Get on the grid! Support your fellow players!

- Whirl

January 29

Mists of Malik Update

The plot is over!

All RP will be unfrozen as soon as I can get a post up Sunday evening. :d

- Whirl

January 27

To those of you cgenning wizards right now:

There appears to be a bug where your 0th level spells are not being appropriately added to your sheets. We are aware of the bug and it will be fixed as soon as EQ has a chance. :)

- Whirl

Janurary 26

It has been pointed out several times that halflings are the only race that don't have a unique racial name for themselves. After some discussion and ideas being bounced around, we've settled on An Lucht Siuil, which translates into 'The Travelling Folk' in tradespeak, for the halflings as their proper name. Check out the wiki page for more details and we'll be doing some more cleaning over the next several days.

Thanks to Laoise for her suggestions and to our players for bringing this to our attention.

- Whirl

January 23

Special Materials policy updated! Basically, we've just made it a little clearer, friendlier, and worth a bit more. :)

Start Here > Game Policies > Special Materials

- Lahar

January 22

hi i kno ur busybut canyo u ...

Hard to understand that, eh? One of the things we're doing on Tenebrae is to encourage clearer communication. We're a text-based medium. Everything we do is based around how someone on the other end of the screen perceives what you've typed.

Since we see, and hear, one another by words across the screen, those same words are how we perceive others. If someone types and spells in a sloppy manner, without taking a moment to look over their spelling and use basic punctuation, then they appear lazy or worse, as though they don't respect or care enough about those they are communicating with.

So put a period or proper punctuation at the end of sentences. Capitalise the first word in a sentence and other words that require it. Take the time to spell out abbreviations, and watch your spelling. This isn't to say perfection is expected, everyone makes typos and mistakes. Just make an honest attempt to communicate clearly.

- Your Tenebrae Staff

January 20

Well, that wasn't MY fault this time.

I'll tell you a joke:

Q: How a lost network engineer will find his or her way back to civilization from wilderness?

A: S/he takes that six feet cable s/he was carrying, buries it to the ground, and thirty minutes later when the backhoe shows up, hitches a ride back to town.

In other words, the expected happened in a nearby excavation site, and some stupid ass dug through the main electricity cable to my neighborhood.

- Lolth

January 20

Hi everyone!

As you know, we've been looking into rebuilding the grid. The old one has been in service for a long time -- close to ten years now -- and it is time to take what we've learned in that time and make something better, stronger, (Tsu ed: faster!) and more useful to you players. Something easier to navigate.

While we're not quite ready to do a building push, we *are* getting ready to do so. This is where you, our players, come in. We're going to start pulling people aside for their thoughts on the grid and what's important and what isn't. You're going to be seeing more in this space going forward. We feel this is important and we hope you'll help us in this project.

- Whirl

January 17

Sit down and pass the nachos. Tenebrae's Geek Corner is now open! Share your thoughts, your favorites, your hate on recent video games, authors, RPGs, webcomics, music, and artists. Other community members are welcome to share and comment on your posts, too... just keep it civil.

Visit: Community > Our Geek Corner

- Lahar

January 16

This is just a friendly reminder to be respectful to your fellow players, give them a fair shake, and to remember to be respectful of the time that people invest in getting things done here. This goes doubly for the OOC room, guys. We're a community sitting around our shared gaming table. Make sure you're not That Guy.

I would ask that everyone take a moment and review our behavior policies at http://www.tenebraemush.net/index.php/Behaviour and remember that a friendly and safe community for people to play in is one of our goals here.

- Whirl

January 16

I will be away on a business trip as of this coming Wednesday, January 18th, through Sunday evening, January 22nd.

I may log in briefly in the evenings thanks to the free wifi at the hotel, but I won't be really be free to run scenes and so on.

- Thunder

January 16

The fancy skin works again, more or less so, and I'll puzzle the mystery of the drop-down menu later. -- Lolth

January 15

Updates done, but the fancy skin for the wiki is TEH BORKEN. Will continue figuring out what's going on with it.

January 13

When we launched Cavalier, one of our goals was to add more Teamwork feats...and I'm proud to announce that we just did. Proud, because we've a hard-working team who's been willing to dig in and make things happen for the Tenebrae community for over a year now. I am blessed to be able to work with each and every one of them. :)

So, hop on over to Characters > Feats, and you'll see a list of the new ones. If you'd like to trade out or exchange, just let us know via +request. A full list of additional Cavalier options (including some rules updates to make traveling with your mount easier) may be seen by visiting their class page.

This finishes Release Package Four, and we'll be gearing up to focus on Five, which focuses on our grid. Note, there may be a few bug fixes here or there, as per usual, and if so, please be patient, we're there with you.

- Lahar

January 11

"By fire and earth! By the divine and sacred blood of Bruce Campbell!" the oruch exclaimed as he raised shaking, scarred hands to the unforgiving darkness, "ARTIFICERS. ARE. DONE!!!"

Many thanks to Earthquake and our hard-working staffers! It has taken us a while to get here, though I think we are better for it.

When Pathfinder first released, most of us knew "3.5 compatible," though not the extent of it, or the changes and change of outlook that Paizo had introduced. It's taken a while to understand these changes. And we're better for it, overall.

We will be taking +requests for conversions to Artificer beginning this evening. Conversions will be handled normally, and report any bugs to Eq via +request.

Please be aware that things may be tweaked as play progresses--this is just normal for new material.

- Lahar

January 7

Classes and Races pages updated. Pretty! And, check out our Introduction to Tenebrae and new PrP Policies if you haven't already!

- Lahar

January 4

Firearms are a go! We've adopted the Inner Sea Guide rules for firearms, with a few minor adaptations.

* Firearms are artifice creations, crafted by gobbers

* We've updated Craft/Gunsmithing to allow for in-combat repairs

* We've added and tweaked a few feats to make them more awesome

* Ranger gunnery style has been updated

You will find the Skills and Feats on the Skills and Feats pages, respectively. Firearms and their new theme and base mechanics are availible under Equipment.

Note, we've removed bayonets until we can get a good look at how the new rules will test.

Respecs are availible via +request.

- Lahar

January 4

The updated artificer is not yet in code.

However, the version we will be using is now available on our wiki.

- Whirl

January 4

The Arvek Nar have a few new feats, and Unit Tactics has been updated to make it easier to track for our DMs. Mul'niessa also received a minor tweak. We're almost through...please send Eq a thank-you the next time he pops online!

- Lahar

January 4

If you possess a rifle, pistol, or other firearm, you will need to contact staff for a trade. This will just be an even trade-in for the new set at no charge. :3

- Lahar

January 3

As the new year is here, it is time we let you know what it is we're working on next.

Some of you have heard us talk about our dissatisfaction with the current grid. As such, our next major project after finishing the release of Package 4 is to do a complete rebuild of the grid for package 5. The grid is old and we've all learned a lot since then and it is something that's long been needed. Our goals are to highlight Alexandria's landmarks better, compress it and make it less difficult to navigate and add more colorful and useful locations *outside* of Alexandria for you to make use of.

We want to better incentivize the use of the grid and RPing at a variety of new locations.

As we move forward on this project, we will be enlisting the help of you, our players, in making this project doable, and opening a dialogue with you to find out what sort of things you want out of the new grid. More information will be coming soon. :)

- Whirlpool

January 2

You may now use content from Beastiary 3 in PRPs as long as you ask us first. :)

- Whirlpool

January 1

As most of you know, we've experimented with death consent PRPs. We are now reopening these once more. Players can ask for and receive permission to run death consent PRPs. This means full XP and treasure, as per a standard DM'd plot, but with the risk of death being higher. We ask that players communicate with us on these to maintain a standard of challenge to help players do so as well.

In addition to this, players are now free to use any and all Beastiary 2 content in their PRPs. That said, if a monster is a 'world spanning, soul devoring creature', we do ask that they come to us and ask us if it is okay to use. Moreover, if you're uncertain something fits into theme, or how it might fit into theme, don't hesitate to ask us as well. We'll work something out with you if we can. :)

Please peruse hte updated plotrunning guide and rules at Roleplay > Running PrPs > Introduction to Plotrunning.

Bestiary 3 is also now open on a case-by-case basis. Basically, ask us first--the tome is still new, and we're looking to avoid any unexpected surprises as things shake out within the greater Pathfinder community.

December 26

FYI, Finland is currently being ravaged by excessively strong winds (300K people are currently without electricity). Thankfully, central areas have been holding on in that respect, but one can never tell for sure, as the storms continue. Fingers crossed, folks.

- Lolth

December 25

The arvek stands over the ruins of the Thulite spires, his eyes filled with the Blaze of Dawn. He raises his spear, giving out a war cry--and finds the wind, the storm responding. Wind roars from the West and the East, tearing at his clothing, and bringing with it the scent of blood...

The world of Ea is saturated with magic, and we have struggled for years with ways to reflect this. Today, we've launched what we hope is the opening of a new chapter for characters within the world of Ea: the launch of Aspects.

Aspects are benefits, some supernatural in nature, some not, that reflect the effort, experience, and time you have spent on your character and their story. You may read more about them through our website, by visiting Characters > Aspects.

As this is the first time Aspects are available, we'll be working with you to offer them to PCs who have part of their stories told already. That is, characters 6+ may apply for Level I of an Aspect as normal, and then consider it 'earned' after 1 month's worth of RP. Level IIs must be applied for as normal. Characters of levels 11+ may do the same for both Levels I and II of an Aspect (that is, one month each).

As we move forward, we will also be looking at the response to Aspects and how they work ingame. That is, you might expect a tweak or two, just as with anything new added to the game.

Happy Holidays, and happy gaming, everyone. :)

- Your Tenebrae Staff (But mostly Lahar because she did the work on it.)

December 15

A big thanks to everyone who participated Make-a-Wish this holiday season! We've one or two more that've been scheduled, and those will be awarded as promised. Scheduling issues are scheduling issues.

Thanks again to everyone, and well, we'd love to do this again next year. Happy Holidays, and make a point of checking out +today. It's been snowing lately...

- Your Tenebrae Staffers